The Importance of Reliability in an Age of Electrification
- Heather Payne, Reliance and Reliability, UC Irvine L. Rev. (forthcoming), available at SSRN (January 30, 2024).
- Joshua Macey, Shelley Welton, & Hannah Wiseman, Grid Reliability in the Electric Era 41 Yale J. on Reg. 163 (2024).
Electricity is at the center of decarbonization and climate change policy. With the rise of renewable energy, we have made the most progress in decarbonizing the electricity sector. The primary approach for decarbonizing transportation and buildings is to electrify vehicles, space and water heating, appliances, and cooking. But the race to move more and more of our activities to a clean electric grid also means that the electric grid is all the more important to our day-to-day lives. A power outage today can thus have much more of an impact – not just darkness, but also interruption of communications (by shutting down internet access), the ability to cook and stay warm, and the ability to move to a place with electricity service.
Yet, climate change is increasing the challenges of maintaining a reliable electric grid. Climate change raises the probability and severity of extreme weather events – such as heat waves – that can stress electric grids and heighten the risks of power outages. Moreover, more intermittent renewable energy on the grid itself can pose challenges to grid reliability. Consumers who are concerned about the reliability of the grid may be wary of increasing their reliance on electricity for home appliances and heating. Reliability is therefore a central issue for decarbonization. It is thus heartening to see two recent pieces of legal scholarship that highlight the issue, beginning the process of thinking about how to make progress on reliability as we move towards decarbonization. There are both federal and state-level angles to thinking about reliability, and both are important. Macey, Welton, and Wiseman focus on the federal aspects in their article, while Payne focuses on the state aspects in her article. Continue reading "The Importance of Reliability in an Age of Electrification"
